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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27153947">all days evening</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/renawitch/pseuds/renawitch'>renawitch</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>About to Die, Anger, Autumn, Cancer, Character Death, Death, Dreaming, Everybody Dies, F/F, F/M, Five Stages of Grief, Friday the 13th, Grief/Mourning, Hospital, Immortality, Immortals, Jail, Killing, Last day of life, Last words, Letters, Love/Hate, M/M, Minor Character Death, Murder, Near Death, Pain, Please Don't Hate Me, Rage, Religious Conflict, Revenge, Seven Deadly Sins, Songfic, Suffering, Suicidal Thoughts, Temporary Character Death, War, coward - Freeform, graveyard, hero - Freeform, injuring</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:02:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,502</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27153947</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/renawitch/pseuds/renawitch</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>22 oneshots across the team on the theme of dying, death, killing and loss</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andy | Andromache of Scythia &amp; Lykon, Andy | Andromache of Scythia &amp; Quynh | Noriko, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. intro</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Unfortunately English is not my mother tongue. I hope that the texts will be readable for you and wish you a lot of fun.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The assignment is to write 22 self-contained oneshots on the themes of death, killing, dying and/or loss.<br/>
For each OS there are specific guidelines, which I copy from the project contribution here for the sake of simplicity.<br/>
There is no order in which the OS should be written and there is no deadline because it is a project and not a competition.<br/>
The important thing is that someone must have hit the last hour. It doesn't matter if the scene takes place in the past, the present or the future and it doesn't matter if it is a real situation, a fantasy, a delusion or a nightmare.<br/>
So that you know what to expect (and the poor Protas), here are the themes for you:</p><p> </p><p>1. your character is suffering from an incurable disease and is waiting for redemption. The OS must not contain more than 2000 words and should be written in the first-person perspective. (Chapter 1 - Father)</p><p>2nd theme of the OS: deadly revenge. Whether or not your character is happy about his actions in the end is up to you.</p><p>3. after the death of a loved one, your character goes through the five classic phases of grief: denial, anger, negotiation, depression, acceptance.</p><p>4. Your character has never intended to kill another person. But in war the best man in the world becomes a murderous beast.</p><p>5. a character who has already died leaves a farewell letter to a special person. At least 400 words and in letter form.</p><p>6. your character has a bad accident (in what form is up to you) and succumbs to his or her severe injuries.</p><p>7. scene of the OS: a cemetery. In addition, the sentence "He/She is now in a better place" must be dropped. Genre: horror OR pain/ comfort.</p><p>8. the daring exuberance of your character becomes his undoing. The OS must end with a philosophical question (e.g. "Was it worth it?"). The story should be told in the 3rd person perspective.</p><p>9. The colours "violet" and "red" must appear in the OS, as well as the momentous sentence "I hope you die.</p><p>10. the last day in your character's eventful, long life. For this purpose the song Hurt by Johnny Cash should be listened to and a line should be added to the OS (translated and) included.</p><p>11. a slightly longer OS (at least 4000 words). Seven characters chosen by you fall victim to the seven deadly sins. (Arrogance, greed, lust, anger, excess, envy, sloth).</p><p>12th setting of the OS: a hospital. Your character barely survives, but had a stirring near-death experience. It should be written in the Du perspective.</p><p>13: On Friday the thirteenth there is a massacre. All characters that appear in your OS will have to die in a mysterious OR brutal way. Genre: Humour OR Horror.</p><p>14th hero or coward? You have to decide whether your character would die for the person he/she loves or even use her/him as a shield. It should be written in the present tense. Genre: Drama.</p><p>15. your character is a convicted murderer and is therefore in prison for life Will he/she feel remorse in time? Your decision.</p><p>16. the difficult and sensitive subject of this OS: suicide. Who, how, what, why, why, why? Leave it all up to you this time.</p><p>17. The OS should be about the opposite topic "immortality", because your character is trying to escape death. If he succeeds in this is up to you again.</p><p>18. A nature-loving OS: It is autumn and your character reflects on the transience of life. Minimum number of words: 300. maybe you should practice a little bit of poetry ;)</p><p>19: It's midnight (= witching hour) and your character thinks to see/hear the dead etc. Whether it's real or a (nightmare) dream remains your decision.</p><p>20. positive overcoming of grief. The leitmotif of this OS should be the quote "If you lose a loved one, you gain a guardian angel" (author unknown).</p><p>21. it becomes religious. Does your character believe in life after death? In heaven and hell? In judgment and guilt and atonement? What awaits him in the end?</p><p>22. Do not put more than twenty-two last words in your character's mouth before he dies/on his deathbed. To whom are they addressed? Do they contain a secret? A promise? A reckoning? Leave everything to you.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. father (Booker)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>1) your character is suffering from an incurable disease and is waiting for redemption. The OS must not contain more than 2000 words and should be written in the first-person perspective.</p><p>Booker meets his dying son Jean-Pierre in hospital</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It will end here.<br/>
Here in this hospital room of the Hôpital de la Charité, in the middle of the twenty others who share this room with me. Sometime in the next few days it will be time and this vegetating between horrible pain and delirious babbled sounds will suddenly end.<br/>
The doctors have done their best, have tried everything - in vain. They cut out the ulcer. A new technique to remove the growth, they told me, would stop the disease. They even used this expensive drug from overseas during the operation so that I would not have to suffer the pain of the cuts, yet I am lying here dying.</p><p>Father, you are here.<br/>
I hate that you are sitting by my bed and watching life drain out of me. I cannot bear it. Can't stand you and your face.<br/>
Not a day have you aged in the last three decades. Where people used to think of you as my father, people now think of you as my younger brother. Tall, handsome and healthy. Since I was eight years old, you have not been sick once. You haven't even had a simple cold and you will outlive me as well as my brothers, mother and everyone else.<br/>
How I despise you for it father!<br/>
I cannot understand how you can be so selfish and just let me die. I am your son, Jean Pierre. Named after your own father, you told me, but you don't reveal your secret, even though it can save my life. Not even now, when death has long since crossed my threshold, is standing before my deathbed and demanding to grab me.<br/>
Why, father, will you not help me? Why do you not save your son? I asked you how it is possible that you do not age. That you never get sick. That you do not get hurt - no matter what wounds you get, but you remain ironically silent and only keep on saying that you cannot help me.<br/>
Father, I do not believe you.<br/>
You know the secret of eternal youth, of eternal life, and instead of sharing it with those you call your dearest ones, you hold the solution to the end of my sufferings for your own sake. Out of selfish self-interest you keep the key to my survival for yourself alone. Full of envy and jealousy, you are not prepared to save the life of your last remaining Son just to be the only one to enjoy eternal life on earth.<br/>
Father, I wish all the demons of hell on your neck!<br/>
May they persecute you until the end of all time and make the rest of your endless life miserable!</p><p>"Get out!" I yell out to you as you reach for my hand to try to calm me down.<br/>
The sick people in the hall, who are still able to do so, stretch their heads curiously. One of the orderlies hisses warningly to give me peace, but I don't want peace. I will have peace if I close my eyes for good today or tomorrow. Now I just want you to know how much I hate you, how much I detest your closeness, your health, your whole being.<br/>
You frown, pretend not to understand that I don't want to see you anymore, call for the doctor and murmur to him, I hallucinated.<br/>
I am not hallucinating! I know very well that you should not be the one I will see in my last, clear moments.<br/>
"Out!"<br/>
In blind rage I reach around me, grab a carafe of flowers on the bedside table and hurl them with the strength I have left into your horrified face.<br/>
The flower water runs out of your hair, drips from the brim of your hat onto the fabric of your coat, blends with the tears in your eyes.<br/>
You are a truly good actor, Father!<br/>
If I did not know of Your selfishness, I might have thought that the acted regret was true and that the bitterness in Your eyes was not only a magnificent performance at my expense.<br/>
You stare at me for only a brief moment, apparently stunned, as I stand up in anger to strike your youthful face with my flat hand. At last you rise and clear the field.<br/>
Go to hell, father!<br/>
You and your damned, smug immortality. Get out of the miserable rest of my life. My death I find without your help.<br/>
If You are not willing to save me, then You shall not be allowed to enjoy my death.</p><p>Fleeing at a fast pace you leave the hospital. The tears on your cheeks are not real. They are part of a perfidious charade, a malicious deception. I know it is so and I have no pity. My pity I need for myself.<br/>
Farewell, father!<br/>
If you will not die a good death, I wish you a miserable life.<br/>
Go away, leave me alone, as you will be alone.<br/>
I don't need you and your secret any more.<br/>
Get out of my life and my death.<br/>
I can die without you.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. revenge (Joe)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>2nd theme of the OS: deadly revenge. Whether or not your character is happy about his actions in the end is up to you.</p><p>Joe at Merricks<br/>He is angry...Pretty angry<br/>it's good for him to have someone to vent his anger on.<br/>For him, this is probably one of the worse days</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Joe knelt on the light marble tiles of the penthouse and stared at the dead soldier at his feet.<br/>
Ever since Keane had forced him and Nicky into Merrick's private plane at gunpoint, he had been sure he would try anything to kill this man.<br/>
Although Keane had not spoken a single word during the flight and had even treated them quite moderately, his further fate lay as clearly before Joe as the text of an open book.<br/>
Everything that had happened after that had merely had some influence on the way his inevitable death was going to happen.</p><p>The fact that Keane grabbed Joe by the throat after his little headbutt against Merrick, squeezed him and again threateningly held the gun to his head seemed almost trivial. Yusuf did not really take it amiss. It was obviously Keane's job to be a well-paid asshole and so some fake loyalty to his boss was the obvious choice.<br/>
That the mercenary shortly afterwards forced Nicky to his knees with a hard blow to the ribs to prevent him from helping Joe, while Merrick stabbed him with the letter opener, he only noticed from afar.<br/>
As little as the deep stab wounds could hurt him, each of these blows was well aimed and more than painful. Much too painful to direct more than a small part of his thoughts towards Nicolo.<br/>
A little later the Taser between his shoulder blades and the Propofol injected into him did the rest to isolate him physically and mentally from Nicky.<br/>
The mere fact that they were separated and torn apart in this way created the first flame of a desire for revenge in him. In the following hours it should quickly grow into a huge conflagration.</p><p>When Joe finally awoke, he found himself in this laboratory full of beeping equipment and medical instruments.<br/>
Had they killed him? Judging by the initial confusion and after the intense dreams of Nile, Andy and Booker, he soon realised that Merrick's helpers had chosen too high a dose of the drug. He must have died from an overdose of Propofol.<br/>
His eyes fell on sample vessels filled with tissue and monovettes full of blood. Did they come from him? Or even worse, from Nicky?<br/>
It was not until he looked around a second time that he realised he was tied to an examination table and Nicolo next to him was sharing his situation.<br/>
Painfully, Joe noticed how incredibly tired his partner looked. Tired and..., did he read serious concern in his face? Something unusual and disturbing lay in Nicolo's eyes. Something between fear and pain. That he was truly relieved at Joe's awakening was clear from his words.<br/>
"Asmuch as i like watching you sleep, but I'm glad you're awake."<br/>
The awkwardly encouraging question about the fit of his hairstyle was due to his own speechlessness and not well suited to cover up their emerging fear. After a brief, relaxed moment in which they both had to laugh heartily, Nicolo's worried seriousness broke through his façade once again when he talked about Malta.<br/>
Oh yes, they would go back to Malta together. At some point. When this was over. The possibility that this might not happen for weeks, months or even years hovered threateningly and unspokenly between them. Yusuf found no other words but to say, dejected and depressed, that it would be nice to repeat her time on the island. Desperation weighed too heavily on his chest.</p><p>This worried expression on Nicky's face burned itself deep into his memory and made the irrepressible desire for revenge only much more tangible.<br/>
Joe still couldn't really say who exactly his hatred was focused on. There were just so many he wanted to hurl his immense rage at. From Keane, under whose command they had been brought here, to the traitorous Copley, to Dr. Kozak, the doctor who didn't seem very reluctant to cut him and Nicky into small slices one by one in the service of science.<br/>
Last but not least of course Merrick. He would pay in any case. Whoever on the team would judge him for this was all the same to Joe at that moment.<br/>
After all the time he had spent on earth, he had met so many assholes who more than deserved to die. Where did they all come from? What drove them to such unscrupulousness? For the next nine hundred years he would probably never be able to understand their thinking. They simply did not belong in this world. All the better that there was a team dedicated to such pissers.<br/>
When Keane and his men took Andy and Booker to the lab, he finally realised that Sebastian had betrayed them and handed them over to Merrick. For a long moment, Joe would have loved to throw himself at him full of anger, although Nicky still tried to talk some sense into him. He just didn't understand how Nicolo could be so differentiated and thoughtful after this shit. The guy they had thought was one of their own for the last two hundred years, their friend, had handed them over to these assholes because he couldn't deal with his fucking immortal life!<br/>
He just didn't understand, but that was one of the traits he loved about Nicky. When Joe exploded, Nicolo was the only one who could put out the wildfire. Wherever he got into trouble himself because of his quick-tempered nature, Nicky was the man who did everything necessary and even more so that Joe would emerge unharmed from all conflicts.<br/>
In the end, it was only the straps that tied Yusuf to that shitty examination table that kept him from pushing the next available sharp object into the Frenchman's chest again and again.<br/>
Not that this attack had any purpose other than to perhaps give him a slight touch of satisfaction. Booker could not take the life of any weapon in the world. Yet Joe would have given a lot to have had free hands and a weapon at his disposal at that moment.</p><p>In the end, Nile had made sure that things didn't get any worse and freed her from her almost hopeless situation in time. It was Andromache who stopped him from pursuing his plan of retaliation against Booker. If it had gone to Yusuf, they would have left him behind. If Kozak had to break him into small pieces again and again, he would have deserved it in Joe's opinion, but Andy persuaded him to put his anger behind him for the time being and let reason prevail.<br/>
One could not exactly say that Sebastien had done anything wrong during her escape. He made a cool, thoughtful and merciless contribution to a deadly routine, as did everyone else on the team. That which had made them work together so precisely for centuries proved its worth here anew.<br/>
But it did not save them from the smoke grenade that Keane suddenly threw at their feet.<br/>
The shock wave hit Joe so hard that he was hurled across the room and lost consciousness for a moment, or had he died again?<br/>
When he awoke with an agonising cough, there was no time to pursue this question.<br/>
The first thing he noticed was Nicky's painful wheezing. Joe laboriously opened his watery eyes. Blurred, he saw that Keane, who was well armed with a protective breathing mask to protect himself against the irritant gas, was kicking on Nicolo with full force.<br/>
Yusuf believed his heart stopped for a moment. Desperately, he tried unsuccessfully to stand up, reach the mercenary and give him the appropriate response to the brutal kicks.<br/>
Nicky groaned in agony as he hit the ground and Joe felt a painful cramping deep inside him. Seeing his partner so defencelessly at the mercy of this asshole almost made him desperate.<br/>
Keane was just about to pull out again when Nicky managed to dodge the kick at the last moment, grabbing Keane by the hips and thighs and bringing him down.<br/>
Joe straightened up. His partner smashed Keane in the face, but he was badly injured and needed help. The mercenary intercepted the next blow, blocked it and kicked Nicky in the chest with such force that he was thrown back and crashed into a packed cage.<br/>
Joe did not think. There was no time to think, so he just reacted, took a step towards Keane, grabbed his head and threw him to the ground. Full of rage, he ripped the breathing mask off his face.<br/>
Instead of being rattled by it, the mercenary started to recoil, smashing Joe's fist against the zygomatic bone. The sheer force of the impact made him break his knees and immediately afterwards he received a blow to the throat that instantly took his breath away.<br/>
Nicky jumped on him as Keane pulled the gun and fell into his arm, but Keane used Nicolo's movement to wrestle him to the ground, skilfully rounding him and thrusting his knee into his ribs.<br/>
Joe watched in horror as his partner woke up in pain, Keane relentlessly grabbed his hair and forced Nicolo to look at his face. Yusuf cried out in panic as the mercenary shoved the barrel of his weapon between Nicolo's teeth and pulled the trigger.</p><p>Cold grip on him. He had seen Nicolo die so many times, killed him several times himself, but to be forced to stand by and watch this head shot was just too much for him.<br/>
Even before Nicky's body hit the floor, dead and covered in blood, he felt tears of desperation running down his cheeks.<br/>
As Keane escaped through the destroyed wall, Joe was barely able to act.<br/>
Was that now? Would Nicky wake up again? All his thinking revolved around the question of whether he might have lost him forever.<br/>
He crawled over the two or three metres to Nicolo's body and forced himself to look into the destroyed face. A short moment was enough and he had to close his eyelids in shock. Desperately, Yusuf turned away. He simply could not bear the horrible sight.<br/>
Even before he could turn back to Nicolo, he awoke with a deep, frightened breath.<br/>
Joe moaned in relief. Nicky regenerated quickly, grabbing him by the forearms with a short, comforting gesture and reaching for his gun.<br/>
Coughing, he now lifted himself up and asked Yusuf to follow him as he stumbled out of the room looking for Andy.</p><p>He would kill Keane.<br/>
All the way they had come to catch up with the others, Joe thought of nothing else but how he would end the mercenary's life.<br/>
Andy would understand, the others would not get in his way.<br/>
This last, brutal death of his partner had hit him as hard as nothing else for a long time. Keane would pay for the pain, fear and despair he had inflicted on them. No matter what the cost.</p><p>Yusuf would not let the opportunity to storm the penthouse through the windows be taken away. Nicky understood immediately what his motivation was behind going it alone and Booker, after his betrayal, did not dare question anything the others on the team decided.<br/>
Immediately after the penthouse chaos broke out, he grabbed Keane with all the anger he could muster. The mercenary couldn't throw a single punch at Joe and he beat him like a frenzy.<br/>
Every blow was like an explosion, helping him to finally unload his pent-up anger on someone who more than deserved it.<br/>
Andy and Nile deliberately held back. Even when they had long since eliminated all the other men from Merrick's private army and Keane was the last one halfway up, they left him completely in the hands of Joe's merciless retaliation.<br/>
When Yusuf finally threw him over his right shoulder and broke his neck on impact, it was finally over.</p><p>Joe took one last contemptuous look at the body.<br/>
Actually, it occurred to him, Keane had died far too quickly. Under other circumstances, he would certainly have taken more time for him, even though Nicky would probably have been anything but happy about that.<br/>
In his mind, he imagined what would have happened if he could have spent more time with Keane. More time and fewer spectators. The scenes of him kicking Nicky still lurked behind Yusuf's forehead, waiting to drive him to despair again when he closed his eyes tonight. He had sold death to Keane far too cheaply and his unbridled rage continued to blaze beneath the surface for some time. Who knew what he could use it for in the future?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Lykon (Andromache)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>3. after the death of a loved one, your character goes through the five classic phases of grief: denial, anger, negotiation, depression, acceptance.</p><p>Andromache looses Lykon</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She stared stunned at all the blood. On her clothes, on the floor, on her hands, there was simply no end to it.<br/>
More and more of it poured out of the gaping wound that the enemy's sword had torn into Lykon's left flank. She pressed her right hand firmly onto the injury under his ribcage, desperately hoping to stop the massive bleeding in this way. Beside her, she noticed Quynh rush towards them, settling down breathlessly at Lycon's side.<br/>
"What happened?", she brought her breath back.<br/>
"He is bleeding," andromache stammered. "It does not stop."<br/>
Quynh stared incredulously from Andromache at Lycon and back again, but said not a word. There were no words for the sight she saw.<br/>
"This cannot be. This. Can. Not. Be. This is impossible, Andromache!" Panic spoke out of her voice and tears of despair came into her eyes.<br/>
Andromache herself did not fare any differently. She stared fearfully at the sword wound, but Lycon seemed calm and composed, even though he was in great pain and with every moment life was draining more and more from him. He reached for Andromache's hand and squeezed it with a firm grip.<br/>
"It is time", he wrestled himself laboriously.<br/>
Andromache shook his head in disbelief. How was that possible? Nearly two thousand years together connected them and never had one of their countless deaths been final. But now, everything was different. Lycon knew that it would end here, but she wanted to, she could not believe it.<br/>
"No", she whispered resignedly.<br/>
"It is time." Lycon's voice was only a soft whisper. His breath was faltering and irregular.<br/>
"No, NO!" Andromache almost screamed now, kept pressing both hands on the deep wound in vain. Somehow this damned bleeding had to be stopped somehow!<br/>
Quynh helplessly laid his left hand on her companion's shoulder and closed his eyes in a low state of depression. Lycon was rapidly weakening. The loss of blood forced him to his knees and after a few more moments he lost consciousness.</p><p>It was at this moment that Andromache's incredulous despair turned into raging fury.<br/>
"Damn it, Lycon, no!" She felt her right hand struggle into a fist on his wound. "You will not leave us here alone! Do you understand? You get up now, you son of a bitch!"<br/>
He didn't move. His breath was shallow, barely perceptible even to her.<br/>
Why? Why him and not her? Andromache felt an angry heat flooding over them. Wasn't he the best of the three? The cleverest? The wisest? The best warrior? Why did it hit Lycon, the one who deserved death the least? Who had found her, helped her to find her way in this new, strange world? Without whom she would never have come so far? What was to happen now, when he bled to death here on the battlefield? Who would lead her? Where would they go?<br/>
When his breath stopped for the first time, she barely noticed how she raised her fist, slammed it on the ground next to his head in rage and despair in a loud, helpless<br/>
scream out.</p><p>The realization struck them like a blow when Lykon's breathing pauses became longer and longer.<br/>
It was her fault. Only their own fault. She should have taken better care of him, protected him more effectively. If she had only kept an eye on the warriors on her right, they would not have invaded her flank. In battle, she had been far too preoccupied with herself to pay more attention to Quynh and Lykon. Now this negligence became his undoing.<br/>
Damn it, she was responsible for this disaster. Her task would have been to search the area, to eliminate enemies lurking in secret, to explore the terrain. She had done all this before the attack, but apparently she seemed to have overlooked units and that became Lycon's undoing, resulting in his final death.</p><p>She closed her tear-filled eyes for a brief moment, wrung out a choked sound and then forced herself to look at him. To look into his more and more relaxed face.<br/>
e to travel the world together, to spend evenings and nights together under the bed sheets, to count the stars and feel his warm hands on their skin.<br/>
The tears in her eyes dissolved, ran down her cheeks, dripped from her chin onto Lycon's face.So much connected them. Twenty centuries in which they had experienced endless times together, seen incredible wonders. So long years and yet, now, in the end, they lacked time.</p><p>Time to travel the world together, to spend evenings and nights together under the bed sheets, counting the stars and feeling his warm hands on your skin.<br/>
The tears in her eyes dissolved, ran down her cheeks, dripped from her chin onto Lycon's face.</p><p>It was this moment when he was able to open her eyes and look at her with a gloomy look.<br/>
"It's all right," his words read more from her lips than she could hear them. He already lacked the strength to make them sound.<br/>
Andromache felt her head shaking vigorously to make him understand that it was anything but good for her. She wanted to tell him so many things, so many words lay unspoken on her tongue, but not a single one left her lips. There were no words she could tell him.<br/>
And because she was not able to speak, she continued to shake her head in disbelief.<br/>
"All right", he breathed and fled into a soft smile.<br/>
She closed her eyes in despair and wistfully stroked his cheek, but he didn't move. Showed no reaction.<br/>
It was over, she realised. </p><p>A strange dull feeling reached for her, filled her legs and arms with an unnatural heaviness, pulled her to the ground next to Lycon's body.<br/>
Silent tears of desperation poured down her face and only from a distance she felt Quynh comfortingly put his hand on her shoulder to take her in her arms shortly after, crying.<br/>
"Come", she said. "Get up, Andromache. He would not have wanted it any other way."<br/>
For a brief moment, she just stared at Quynh. Then she nodded slowly and started to get up. She was right, she thought. Get up, go on, keep going. Just as Lykon would have expected.</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. 1812 (Booker)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>4. Your character has never intended to kill another person. But in war the best man in the world becomes a murderous beast.</p><p>Booker 1812 at the Russian campaign of Napoleon</p>
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    <p>He stared shocked at the bloody bayonet in his hands.<br/>What the hell was he doing here? He was a damned forger, a thief, a gambler, but not a butcher, or was he in fact?<br/>Dazed, he closed his eyes. Terrible pictures were floating under his closed eyelids. A dying horse that rolled over on its rider in agony and crushed his skull with its shod hoof.<br/>A Russian soldier who rushed towards him with a sabre in his hand and collapsed dead before he could reach him.<br/>A flashing bayonet that drilled deep into the body of an enemy.<br/>Sebastien hastily opened his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. Were these memories? His own memories? Had he really seen all these things? Experienced? Done?<br/>Again he shook his head, threw the Weapon to the ground. Tears came to his eyes, made their way across his face as he closed his eyelids. <br/>No, he was only a cheater and not a murderer. He had been forcibly recruited, given a choice. Hanging from the gallows or serving in the Grande Armée. The choice was not particularly difficult for him. <br/>He looked at his bloodstained hands. If only he had chosen the damn gallows.<br/>He had never seriously considered killing people. He hadn't wanted any of this. None of it.<br/>He felt the nausea crawl up his throat. That dead body at his feet, all that blood, that wasn't what he had done, was it? Was he really capable of such cruel deeds?<br/>He forced himself to look away, to look in a different direction so as not to have to bear the sight any longer.<br/>Everything that surrounded him was dead. Horses, men, soldiers. Blood and ruin everywhere, no matter where he turned his gaze.<br/>Again he looked at the blade of the bayonet on the ground. Was that his work? That of his comrades?<br/>The nausea proved to be stronger, overpowering him, making him vomit.<br/>He closed his eyes again in despair, but new, terrible images kept cropping up behind his eyelids as soon as he closed them.<br/>Tears came into his eyes. It could not be. He was only a forger. A thief and nothing more. Certainly no more. Only a gambler, but it dawned on him that he must have chosen the wrong game.</p><p> </p><p>Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. the last letter (Nicky)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>5) A character who has already died leaves a farewell letter to a special person. At least 400 words and in letter form.</p><p>Nicky &amp; Joe :-(</p>
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    <p>Yusuf, my heart,</p><p>You know, I can hardly put into words what I really want to say to you. I've always been bad at that. The romantic, who was able to describe all his feelings in the perfect beauty of poetic words, has always been you and not me.<br/>
Today I regret this inability more than on any other day of my life.<br/>
I can count on one hand the few letters that I have written to you in more than nine hundred years, and every single one of them has crumbled to dust over the endless decades.<br/>
All that remains of myself is solely you.<br/>
You do not know what I would give to spare you this cruel experience, but I cannot.<br/>
Life has not asked me for my consent and neither has death. It has left me, us, no choice but to go without you and leave you in this cold place.</p><p>Yusuf, star of my sky, we hoped that as we had begun together, it would end together. Now that I know it will not, it breaks my heart to look into your eyes and read the utter despair in them, for you also know that I cannot wait for you.<br/>
Now that my time is coming to an end I wish you had only known about it after it was over, but you are struggling with this realisation. If I were in your place I would be no different and I am so unspeakably sorry. Your grief hurts me more than the damn wound that now forces me to my knees.<br/>
I want you to know that nothing in this world has made me happier in all this time than to lie in your arms, to smell your scent, to listen to your heartbeat, to feel your breath on my skin and just to know that you have always been there for me.<br/>
I don't know what to say to you. I don't have the words to put my boundless love for you into this text.</p><p>Yusuf, you have always been my light in the darkness of this world.<br/>
I ask you to continue to be that light. For Nile, who needs you as a friend and confidant. For Andy, who will depend on your irrepressible love and for Booker, for whom your forgiveness may be the salvation.<br/>
I have always loved you more than anything I have ever known. So much so that every short moment without you near me hurt me almost physically.<br/>
I can hardly measure the pain of your loss and I pray to God, although He left me a long time ago, that we will meet again one day.</p><p>Forever yours<br/>
Nicolo</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Lurie Garden (Nile)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>6. your character has a bad accident (in what form is up to you) and succumbs to his bad injuries</p>
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    <p>She loved autumn. Each day of October brought out more Indian Summer colours than the previous one, making the world a little bit more colourful and significantly prettier, even here in Chicago.<br/>A veritable avalanche of cars rolled through the streets of the city at rush hour.<br/>Even the constant stop and go couldn't spoil their excellent mood. The fact that Nile was travelling by bicycle only benefited her here. Faster than any car driver, she would reach all destinations within or outside the city. An advantage that should not be underestimated, even if it was basically only due to the fact that she simply could not afford her own car.</p><p>Nile had spent almost the entire day at Lurie Garden. All alone, she had already swung on her bike in the morning, packed up her old camera and set off for the Chicago Loop. She had been looking forward to this day off for weeks.<br/>In the deepest autumn the colour of the trees and bushes shone the most beautiful.  On one of the last warmer days she roamed Lurie Park, Millennium Park and Gand Park with her camera and spent the whole time just capturing the best moments and moments on her father's old camera.  <br/>The fact that she had also met Thomas on this almost perfect day was the crowning glory of the whole thing.<br/>The guy was already a perfect optical match for Niles taste. The fact that he was also incredibly nice and friendly, and was totally on her wavelength, was almost too good to be true.<br/>A broad smile slipped from her face when she thought she would see him again tomorrow at noon at Caffe Moderno.</p><p>Quickly she wiggled her way through the honking cars of the rush hour traffic on her bike and frowned doubtfully as she glanced at her watch.<br/>Half past four already. She had dawdled far too long and hadn't paid any attention to the time during the nice day with Thomas. It would take her at least forty minutes to cycle to the southside, or even longer.<br/>Her mom would freak out if she wasn't home until after dark. Precisely because she would have to cycle alone through some shady areas of the Southside.<br/>She'd better get a good grip. Nile decided to avoid the main road with its avalanche of cars. Instead, she quickly turned into a side street.</p><p> </p><p>Frank, the bus driver, who just turned into the main road, hardly noticed that something was hitting the vehicle.<br/>The fact that his front passengers cried out in horror made him step on the brakes more out of a reflex and stop the vehicle.  <br/>Only when the bus came to a halt did all the colour fade from his face and the nausea crept up his throat. His hands trembled, his heart raced.<br/>With some effort he managed to get up from the driver's seat and take a step towards the opening passenger door.<br/>Excited scraps of words reached his ear. One of the passengers phoned the ambulance station and with cold routine ordered an ambulance to the scene of the incident. Maybe he was a fireman or a policeman?<br/>When Frank dared to look out the open door, the first thing he saw was the completely bent tyre of a bicycle under his bus. He only noticed the blood sticking to it shortly afterwards.<br/>Panic seized him, the heartbeat intensified and turned into a severe chest pain. His left arm became numb and he felt his legs give way, unable to carry him.<br/>With a suffocated gasp he collapsed on the steps of the interior.</p><p> </p><p>She hadn't felt the impact at all and at first Nile didn't realise what was happening.<br/>The last thing she remembered was the thought of taking a shortcut through the side street and now everything around her was dark.<br/>She tried to look around to see something, but her body did not do what she wanted it to do.<br/>Frustrated, she tried to vent her anger but not a sound came out of her throat.<br/>Instead, a strangely warm liquid in her mouth seemed to want to swallow every word.<br/>As the pain began, she suddenly realised that it was the blood in her throat that prevented the scream. She could not move because she was trapped between the road and her bike under something large and massive with shattered bones.<br/>From a strangely distant perspective, she noticed someone holding her right hand and tried to talk to her in a reassuring way.<br/>Nile did not understand the words, they wavered around her as if in a muff, sounding hollow in her ears, as if shielded from her mind by a thick blanket, becoming ever quieter.<br/>The pain faded against the background of a strange coldness taking possession of her, and the world around her seemed to become darker and darker.<br/>Even the shortness of breath was only half as bad for her as she realised that she was about to die. It was just a pity that this great date with Thomas won't happen tomorrow....</p><p> </p><p>Nile woke up with a panicky scream and looked around in confusion.<br/>Booker, Joe and Nicky had gathered around her. Booker's hand held her rights and muttered reassuring words in French.<br/>Andy stared at her anxiously from a few steps away.<br/>"A dream, Nile," Nicky whispered softly and put his cool hand on her shoulder.<br/>"It was only a bad dream."</p>
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